fraud remains an important organizational risk, while empirical findings on the effectiveness of internal audit and internal control in fraud prevention are still mixed. This study analyzes the role of internal audit, the effectiveness of internal control, factors associated with their ineffectiveness, reported forms of coordination or synergy, and remaining research gaps. A descriptive-qualitative literature review was conducted using thematic synthesis of 12 articles published in SINTA-accredited Indonesian journals between 2022 and 2026. The main articles were purposively selected through Google Scholar and Garuda based on topic relevance, full-text availability, journal accreditation status, and their contribution to five research objectives. The synthesis indicates that internal audit and internal control remain relevant components of fraud-prevention mechanisms, but the strength of their empirical effects varies across studies. Internal audit effectiveness is associated with independence, competence, and management support, whereas internal control effectiveness depends on implementation quality and organizational context. Coordination across functions can strengthen governance and assurance coverage; however, the reviewed evidence is insufficient to conclude that simultaneous application is always more effective in every organizational setting. Within the reviewed sample, the main research gaps concern simultaneous testing in the public sector, cross-sector integration models, wider use of mixed methods, and more consistent measurement of key variables.
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Panjaya et al. (2026) studied this question.
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